Vampires, just another kind of bat
by braen
Summary: Someone had stolen some ancient amulet from Gotham archeology museum and Batman's investigations led to L.A. He had been in San Francisco at the moment so... X-over between Robin and the whedonverse. Yes. Don't ask.
1. Prologue

The boy was running.

His sneakers barely touched the ground while he tried to outrun those four guys who were clearly out of his league. Anyone could see it was going to be an unfair fight once they caught him. Of course, it didn't matter. It was L.A. and no one was going to mind anyone else's business. Even more if the business was with those big, vicious guys.

So the boy ran and ran, but was finally cornered on an alley. He hit the wall in frustration before turning to the thugs, who were rounding him while smiled their white razorblade smiles. Big and pointy teeth shone in the dim light.

"So, little guy here wanted to be a hero" said one of them, his face changing from regular goon to big mouthed monster.

"Yeah, we were having fun with those babes and you had to come and stab Mike on his back" He signalled one of his mates, who had a wooden stake protruding from his shoulder.

Now the four of them looked like the monsters they were. The boy didn't look specially surprised, but he did look worried. He had no apparent weapon and was clearly outnumbered.

"Not so brave anymore, uh?"

The boy took a step back while the monsters took a step forward.

"You know what's funny?" Said Mike he took the slender boy by the collar and lifted him from the ground. "If you had had any idea of anatomy..."

"Or a better shot" laughed one of his friends.

"Yeah, or a better shot" accepted Mike, "you'd have had an opportunity".

The boy smiled dryly.

"I know something even funnier" He said, opening his mouth for the first time. "Have it occurred to you that I may have quite a nice grasp on anatomy and a pretty decent shot?"

Mike frowned at that while the rest of his gang laughed. He seemed to be the smart one, smarter than the rest, at least. But he was slow all the same.

Before the question his brain was forming could reach his lips (why would you fail on purpose?) the boy had grabbed his arm and, putting his feet on his chest, freed himself from his grasp, landing on their back.

Two wooden stakes appeared on his hands from under his sleeves.

"A fucking hunter!" Mike tried to organize his gang. They were still four against one. "Bob, Chuck, round him before he..."

One stake impaling him right through his heart prevented him from finishing the sentence and made him explode in a cloud of dust.

Bob turned to see Mike's attacker, but that made it easier for the boy to stab him while the rest of the gang succumbed under the supernatural strength of their new foe.

When the dust settled the boy lifted his head towards his associate, who was picking up his stakes.

"You've taken your time" he said, rearranging his shirt and hiding his weapons again.

"You had everything under control, Rob. Didn't want to crumble your stile" The other boy, for he wasn't much older than his friend, smiled. "Still, we make a pretty good team, don't we?"

Robin smiled back.

"At least we are a better team than they were."

"Fucking vampires always make for lousy teams. I still have to meet one that's not a sucker."

"Even your father?"

The fairer boy lost his smile for a moment and then smirked, a twisted, cruel grimace on his face.

"Specially my father."

And with that he began walking, leaving the younger boy behind.

Robin sighed. It was already hard as it was, believing in vampires, killing the undead, fighting demons and everything else. Stepping between the boy and his father perhaps was too much. He shouldn't care.

But he did.

He cared.

"He is not you" He said to himself. "Angel is not your father."

With a last sigh he followed Connor out of the Alley. They had finished with some bloodsuckers, sure, but their work was far from done.


	2. the real beginning

Robin landed over a roof wondering, not for the first time, what was he doing there.

He knew the short answer, of course: Bruce had sent him.

Someone had stolen some ancient amulet from Gotham archaeology museum and Batman's investigations led to L.A. He had been in San Francisco at the moment so...

That didn't satisfy him much, though. He should be at school now. Tim Drake's social life was bad enough without skipping classes constantly. Bruce would come up with some good explanation, of course (some relative to visit, or a friend, or a very important business he should be learning... Whatever), but that would only make things worse. And still he was jumping from roof to roof in an unknown city, trying to learn any clue about some ancient trinket that Bruce thought crucial to find.

L.A. was not his city, so his jumps were more cautious than ever while he followed orders from his pocket computer. One street to the left, two to the right, left again, go straight, right now. The thing was important and, like all important things, it left a trail. This particular trail faded away with the name of the last guy who had sold it. Police records had his current address and there he was heading when he heard the yell.

It was a girl, and she was really scared by the sound of it. So he ran as fast as he could to the dark alley where the screams where coming from.

And there they were, the girl and a man clearly trying to do more than rob her.

He landed on a fire staircase and threw a batarang to the man. It was a warning shot, it wasn't meant to hurt him. Not yet. But somehow the man heard it fly and turned and his sudden movement made the blade cut his face.

He yelled, angry, letting the girl go and looking directly at him. He would have reflected about the fact that, being as he was concealed in shadows using his famous ninja skills, the guy was not supposed to spot him had he not been so scared all of a sudden.

The man was not a man at all but some kind of beast. His eyes were yellow and his mouth big and twisted, shinny, pointy fangs showing in the dirty light. And even if he had seen some pretty weird things in the past, some primitive fear twisted his entrails as the man jumped to him.

Jumped!

He was at least 13 feet from them and the guy just jumped and landed in front of him, pissed off to say the least!

A meta, his rational, logic loving brain told him as he saw the cut on his face heal all alone. A fucking ugly one, but a meta non the less. He had seen worse. Sure.

"You are not one of them" Said the monster, relaxing a bit as if relieved suddenly of his own fears. Then it frowned "Who the fuck are you? And what's with the clothes? There's a geek con in town or what?"

He would have liked to retort something. He was the one supposed to be administering the puns, but the irrational terror had set in his stomach and refused to let go as the thing attacked him, trying to grab his neck. Instinctively, he twisted, kicking it hard on the side. Perhaps it didn't expect any resistance, or perhaps it was just a lousy fighter that relied only on brute force. The fact is that his kick unbalanced the thing and it fell.

He was not able to catch it on time and it fell, all 13 feet to the floor.

Crap.

He jumped as the thing hit the concrete with a low thud. With his heart racing, he put a hand on its neck and found no pulse.

Crap, crap, crap, crap.

He had killed it. No, not it. Him. He was a man and he had killed him because he had been too afraid to think properly.

Suddenly, too quick for him to react, the dead man moved and, grabbing him by the neck, hit him against the wall. The childish terror hit home again as the monstrous face breathed over his. What the hell was this thing? It had been dead. He had checked the pulse.

"You know? You are lucky, boy. A ninja weirdo like you is going to be useful to our lord"

The mouth opened, the white, abnormally big teeth shone and, as sudden and unexpected as anything else in the past minutes, a hand tapped the monster shoulder.

"Who...?" And as it turned, Robin saw impatience in the monsters eyes.

The boy behind it just grimaced and stabbed it in the heart with a wooden stake. Split between relieve and horror, he fell when the grip in his neck lessened. The monster opened his big, yellow eyes and looked at his killer.

And when Tim was thinking the night couldn't get any more terrifying, it exploded, turning into a cloud of dust that fell partly over his head.

He stood up, brushing it off madly, disgust taking over him in big, quick strides.

"Are you ok?" Asked the boy.

"You've killed him!" He said, stepping away from him. He still had a pair of those stakes in his hands.

"Yes. He was going to kill you, remember?"

"And you have killed him. How I know you are any better?"

"Well, for one, I'm not trying to feed on you. And, secondly, I can't kill what's already dead."

Already dead? He remembered how it had no pulse after the fall and, still, it had risen and nearly killed him.

"What are you talking about?"

"New in town? That would explain the clothes"

Oh, no. Not after a night like that. He was not going to take any more comments about his costume.

"What's with my clothes?"

"Are you kidding? A red pyjama and a cape? Have you ran away from a cosplay?"

There it was again. Had this people never seen a superhero?

"It's not a pyjama. Pyjamas are not bulletproof, are they?"

"And it's vampireproof?"

"Of course it's not..." The word fell into his confused brain some seconds after he opened his mouth. "What have you said?"

"Vampireproof" He smiled, enjoying his confusion.

"Vampire" Repeated Tim "As in... Dracula? You mean it was..."

"A vampire, yes. This city is full of ugly bloodsuckers"

He looked at the boy, trying to figure out if he was pulling his leg, but he found no trace of lying in his eyes and stance. He did found a lot of comptent, but it just made him realize he was in front of L.A.'s "defender". Bruce didn't treat trespassers any better.

Ok, so.. vampires. It was weird, but it explained a lot of things. He just needed some seconds to cope with it and everything would make sense again.

He breathed, relaxing.

"Sorry for freaking out." He smiled apologetically while extending a hand to the boy. "Thank you very much. I'm Robin"

"Connor" said the boy, shacking his hand. "Now, really, what's with the clothes?"

"Er... " He looked at the boy, plainly dressed in jeans and t-shirt and then he looked at himself. From a certain point of view it was clearly ridiculous. "It's my... uniform"

Connor shrugged.

"Whatever. But if I were you, Bulletproof, I'll stay away from this side of the city if you want to avoid vampires"

"I can't, I have to find someone" He said, regaining a bit of his pride and composure.

Connor put his stakes back in his pockets.

"I'll better help you, then. That city is not pretty at night"

He would have protested but, truth be told, the idea of crossing another vampire still freaked him out. So he just shrugged and looked in his pockets for the merchant's address.

"I was heading here" He explained his new partner, who leaned over his shoulder to read the paper. "Do you know the place?"

Connor nodded.

"I know the way. But..." He hesitated, looking at him. "Are you going to walk like this?"


End file.
